The Chronicles of Dragonrax (Spring 2008)

Continue to acquire documents on gang-members, preferably those in the same gangs as the previous ones, or perhaps find the big fish to fry.

Ask around (seriously) about hiring private security - in particular, what companies are available as of now? How would BW go about creating his own? What kinds of equipment and training would be necessary to develop a security squad? Delve into a few examples, like Vontaug security.

Influence Response:

You get some information regarding the Furies. Because the Furies get to be the bitches of the week. One interesting dossier stands out. Name is Mel Samson. Suspect in dozens of crimes, ranging from petty theft to armed robbery to a couple rapes and one rape-murder. The fucker is a Watch leader in a section of Furies territory overseeing a couple of apartment buildings. The past three watch leaders all had accidents, and since Mel stepped up, reported crime has gone down. You suspect he's just intimidating witnesses...

There are a large number of private security firms operating in and around New York. Just pick up a yellow pages and start making calls...

Setting up a firm requires a mess of licensing, background checks and other red tape, although it is often possible to cheat a bit. Basically, you need a friend who works at the licensing bureau, or you need to bribe the right people.

You are utterly incapable of getting any info on Vontaug's security from the police side of things. Its almost like someone's gone through and arrange it to be so... which is not surprising, given the situation.

Basically, you suspect that if you throw a pile 'o money and influence at the problem, you'll be able to set up whatever private security you want. Training and equipment are up to you. Depends on how much you want to spend. Just so long as you get the PI, firearms and private security licenses in order. The firearms licenses will be the worst of it.

Brian Wu; January 29, 2008

INDUSTRY x4:

Stealth x4

Arrange to have a custom-made grapple gun made. (Realistically speaking, it wouldn't go fast, but it'd be great for getting on top of buildings.) Also, climbing claws which hook into the suit would be nice. Very nice.

sort.

Influence Response:

GRAPPLE GUN DOES NOT EXIST IN REAL LIFE; THE BEST YOU CAN GET IS A GRAPPLING HOOK ATTACHED TO CABLE WITH WUTANIUM-CARBON FIBERS AND STUFF AND PERHAPS A HEFTY RIFLE DESIGNED TO FIRE YOUR GRAPPLING HOOK/CABLE; IT MIGHT BE BETTER JUST TO PUT DOTS INTO ATHLETICS: CLIMBING; BUT YOU GET YOUR HOOK/CABLE ANYWAY PLUS YOUR HEFTY RIFLE.

CLIMBING EQUIPMENT IS AWESOME THOUGH, YOU GET UPGRADES FOR YOUR BOOTS AND CLIMBING CLAWS WHICH CAN SLIDE BACK INTO YOUR SWEET NEW METAL-ENFORCED GLOVES A LA WOLVERINE PLUS YOU CAN PUNCH HARDER

Brian Wu; January 30, 2008

PERSONAL ACTION:

Dragonrax ACTS.

Open dossier on Hector Rodriquez. Read. Investigate his whereabouts, his habits, etc. with liberal amounts of Obfuscate and Domination of his friends.

Follow him from the rooftops (or if not, Obfuscated), and get acquainted personally with his habits.

When he's alone, put a throwing star in his ass. Tackle him, beat the shit out of him (careful not to break any bones), and drag him into an alley. Ask him about the Sempreverde trade - what's going on right now with Throat-cutter gone, if anyone (especially AZN) is moving in on his/her territory. Dominate if necessary. Feed - making sure he forgets this part. Let him know his (and their) days are numbered.

Dread Gaze. Obfuscate.

Influence Response:

Dragonrax is on the prowl...

You begin by carefully reading up on the area in police reports. You then briefly consider your plan of attack. You could start with the bars, restaurants and street corners (looking for his friends), or you could prowl about on the rooftops spying on him. Both of these approaches have difficulties. Your inexperience with the area and with the streets in general (IE, no Streetwise) poses some difficulties with the 'talk to his friends' approach. The rooftops offer a more stylish approach, but require you to a.) get onto the rooftops and then b.) hear what the hell is going on below without c.) getting seen.

Flipping a coin, you disregard its results and go with the incredibly stylish 'rooftops' option to get some preliminary intelligence.

After a few hours of rooftops, you return to ground level and simply follow him on foot obfuscated being sneaky like a ... Dragon? ... or something like that.

After carefully removing all bling, fine clothing or anything else that you thought would scream 'mug me!', you seek out Mr. Rodriquez's friends. By cunningly waiting until early in the morning when they're drunk, you are able to pass yourself off as someone who is not in fact a massively wealthy vigilante out to bring down their reign of terror. Your AWESOME, ENTRANCing presence and DOMINATing manner make sure things go smoothly.

You find that Mr. Rodriquez is being a bad boy. He regularly meets with other bad boys to discuss how they are going to kill other bad boys in his effort to take over Throat-Cutter's old network. You stealthily infiltrate one of these meetings by sneaking past the armed guards in a fit of athletic and intellectual prowess - by which I mean you overheard where it was going to be held, slipped in before it started and hid out of sight.

After the meeting, you follow Mr. Rodriquez home, Obfuscated. As he passes through a back alley, you initiate plan 'throwing-star-in-butt'. Before Hector can figure out what the fuck just happened, something out of a bad fantasy movie is all over his sorry ass pummeling the shit out of him. He's strong, for a mortal, but he cannot compete with your unnaturally strong undead strength.

You then begin your interrogation.

Although he doesn't remember any AZN gang bosses, Hector does recall someone connected with his sempre suppliers. It seems that some new guys showed up a couple months back with really high quality shit. Since this was after the Staten Island raids when the supply situation got messed up, Hector jumped at the chance. Usually, his contacts were the usual New York kind of trash, but one time some boss-man was present who was Asian. Took a phone call in squinty-eyes language during the transfer too...

You carefully remove any memories of the conversation you did not have about the Asians you are not interested and the blood you did not take from him. While you're at it, you make him remember you as being taller, stronger and more terrifying than you originally seemed. You then give him a stern warning about your impending return should he be a bad boy. You then violate the masquerade at him - I mean Dread Gaze him and dramatically vanish into a cloud of smoke.

Brian Wu; February 12, 2008

PERSONAL ACTION:

Purchase a pair of night-vision binoculars, some rubber gloves, rope, handcuffs, and a large sheet of fabric that can double as a banner of sorts.

Study the dossiers on Greg the Knife. Find out what he looks like (keep a picture in the coat which is in the car just in case), and follow him for several days to make note of his patterns at a distance - binoculars + rooftop. Find out when he sleeps - this is most important. The hefty climbing rifle should be useful in ascending buildings. Track him to his home. When sure of his patterns, enact the following plan:

Should his home be some sort of apartment complex with appropriate apartment balconies, discover who the landlord is, and DOMINATE him/her into handing over a spare key some other night. He/she forgets this ever happens. Arrange for any doormen or any other possible witnesses/guards to be bribed. Enter apartment when he isn't there, and attempt to mess around with the thermostat such that it is broken and won't stop pumping heat. If failure, just crack open the balcony door enough so that entry should be no problem at a later time. If necessary, apply Security skills and fiddle with the balcony door lock so that it can be opened from the outside. All of this fiddling should be done with rubber gloves and a ski mask of some sort.

Should Greg choose to either close a window to keep the heat in, or take a breath of fresh air in the cold, Dragonrax will be inside his home, Obfuscated. In this case, he will be grabbed and throttled against the railing while being handcuffed. Crush him into the floor, whispering sweet judgment in his ears. Beat the shit out of him, take his blood, then beat the shit out of him some more so he's unconscious.

Hang pre-prepared fabric-banner with the words "WHO WATCHES THE WATCHERS?" on it from the balcony, using rope.

Should Greg jump the gun or the planned plan just not be applicable, repeat a similar process as last time - study his habits, isolate him, beat the crap out of him. If possible, leave him in a public place with the banner hung from somewhere nearby.

You spend several days stalking your target. You find that although Greg's sleeping patterns are non-standard, he is usually in bed by 3 or 4 in the morning. His 'work' takes around the neighborhood, but he rarely ventures outside of it. He's a local boy... just like the ones who he 'works' with. One one lucky occasion, you get the chance to follow him when he goes to work... and get to see why he's called Greg the Knife, when he pulls an overly flashy knife and threatens to start removing someone's fingers to prove a point. After a tense moment, during which you double-check to make sure your smoke grenades are where they ought be, the threatened man backs down.

In addition to 'work' as an enforcer, Greg is dabbling in a little pimping on the side. As far as you can tell, he only has one or two girls working for him.

Greg does not live in an apartment with balconies, but it does have a fire escape, which is almost as good. You put on your not-Brian-Wu-and-not-a-vigilante costume, and meet with the apartment manager. After waving around your AWEsome dominate badge, you are in possession of a spare key. Apartments such as this have no doormen, unless you could the homeless person who occasionally crashes, shivering, under the overhang in front of the door.

Early one evening after Greg goes out, you break into Greg's apartment and 'improve' his therostat. While you're at it, you also turn on all of his space heaters.

When Greg gets back, he does immediately go to open the window... next to the fire escape. A brief 'conversation' ensues. You think that Greg understands your point. Just to make sure, you drive it home a few more times with a convenient wall. You leave him handcuffed to the fire escape and hang your banner. To insure that he doesn't die of the cold, you wrap him in his comforter. For good measure